(In this new interview Comrade Aleks catches up again with Kostas Panagiotou, mastermind of Pantheist, whose latest album Closer to God was released earlier this month.)

Years ago Pantheist was known as a funeral doom metal band, international to some degree, and sometimes experimental. Twenty years passed since the release of their first demo 1000 Years and Pantheist went far away from the point where they were back then. 21 years, 24 different members, 6 full-length albums, and one man who holds this project on his shoulders – it’s obvious that he’s free to do whatever he finds necessary to this creature, whatever he feels right.

It’s Kostas Panagiotou who not only performs the duties of vocalist and keyboard player, but also writes music and lyrics and produces Pantheist. Is it a one-man band indeed? We’ll know it soon, of course. The new album Closer to God was born during this anxious and stressful lockdown, as Kostas lists the ingredients of the new material — “the ghost of Ennio Morricone; the soundtrack of videogames endlessly played; an unfulfilled need for connection; an acute awareness of the futility of it all…”

The album was planned to be a single track, but after all there are four gorgeous tracks on the verge of different genres yet based on a funeral doom fundament. The result of Pantheist‘s recording sessions is inspiring, the band gives some food for the soul and the brains, and Kostas serves it for us in this interview. Continue reading »